Apple Altamonte — Local services in Altamonte Springs

I am disturbed at how I was treated at this Apple location after coming back from a failed appointment last week. I had the misfortune of working with Chelsea my second time driving here. She did not care about my situation and basically told me to kick rocks about my 2.5 hour drive round trip that her “coworkers drive is farther”. I have driven there twice they can’t repair my WARRANTIED PHONE. Don’t bother buying Apple CARE PLUS… they will just smirk at you when you plead your case to understand my situation…

I was sent to their authorized sister store for unsuccessful repair where THEY sent me back in December. Then last week Wednesday the 6th the manager “Papa John” advised me to just come back and say that name and I will be able to get my phone replaced for $29 under the Apple care because the battery is expanding from the inside and causing the phone to LED screen to push out and phone dies sporadically and will not hold charge. They are willing to let a customer walk around with an unsafe device.

That being said- John and Julian were extremely kind and explained they couldn’t complete the exchange as their sister company forgot to clear my phone from the repair system and had me call for 2 hours till I could get them to clear it, but they were closing at 7pm and said it takes 24 hours to clear and come back another day, no appointment needed just say papa John sent you.

Today I still MADE an appointment however I was a few hours early for my appointment as driving through 5pm traffic on I4 is dangerous and backed up and Chelsea rudely talked to me as if I was a piece of human garbage because I was early and as if I think all these other people waiting don’t matter. Shame on you. I have a design company that uses powerful CAD software and my whole design team uses expensive apple computers, phones, and tablets. I will be listing them all for sale on marketplace and switching to windows/android. Shame on you for making a loyal customer feel this way. I drove countless hours and time to repair your stupid phone. Shame on you Chelsea.

My message to Chelsea:

Hope your day gets better and you learn how to work with people. Whatever is going on in your life you need to leave that at the door and be kind to people or at the very least customers. Telling me my girlfriend deleted my appointment and re made it crossed a line. I would’ve had a different reservation ID if that was true you know exactly what you were doing and when I called you out you tell me it doesn’t matter. I hope you know you won I will never come back just like you wanted. Where do you get off ruining peoples day? I’ve never been talked to by anyone so condescendingly I felt like I was an inmate in jail being spoken to my a corrections officer. Please Apple you need to spend some time with some of your employees on how they speak to us this...

tldr: Don't have items shipped to store (ship to home), don't expect any of the numerous staff members stuck on their tablets to assist you, and if they do, don't expect it to be prompt and they will tell you to deal with Apple directly anyway. If you are foolish enough to ship to store, don't believe emails saying its ready yet.

Ordered a laptop and monitor adapter cable from the website for pickup. Received a call to confirm order, as they seem to assume any order is fraudulent. Received verbal confirmation at that time that the order was ready for pickup as well as an email with the subject line that the order was ready for pickup.

Went to the store in person to collect the laptop and cable. Over 15 staff members on the floor. No one to assist with order pickup in the designated order pickup area, which is next to the employee-only section of the store. Constant stream of more staff members in and out, causing the number of floor staff to range from 12-18 staff members at a given time, mostly just looking at their own tablets and not assisting anyone. Almost all of them passed by me multiple times without any offer to assist. I took out my ID and had my phone ready for the needed scan, to try to raise my profile.

After about 8 minutes, a staff member walked over to inform me that the pickup staff member was in the bathroom. About 10 minutes later, almost immediately after I sat on the nearby table to rest, (which seemed to draw attention from staff) a male staff member approached me requesting my name.

I provided my name, he declined my ID, and offered me the adapter cable, informed my order was "custom", and that was all he had available for me. I asked him what made it custom? He said he didn't know, as he does not have my order details!

Apparently using anything other than the base models in silver is a "custom" Apple product, and stores don't really know what you order for pickup.

Due to the laptop being needed that day, and the poor service, I asked him to cancel the order. He said he could not, as he does not have the ability, and I would need to use links in the email to contact Apple to cancel.

I searched the order email for a link to cancel, but there was not one, just info on how to contact customer care. I called the number provided, and canceled the order.

Terrible experience. Won't shop at an Apple Store again, as they don't appear to be store or place for customer service; just an ad for their products, a coffee-free way to have Wifi, and a boomer training center for basic...

Avoid this place if you can. Drive to another Apple Store where they treat you better. I got an iPhone 16 on a Thursday from this store. Didn’t realize that the screen has scratch that you can only see when the phone was off. Sent my daughter and her friend (I had to work that day) to exchange on a Monday and was told that they need the card info (understandable) my daughter was not able to reach me (phone call) so they went and shopped inside the mall for a little bit. Came back to the Apple Store and was told to wait until an exchange representative gets to them. 15 minutes later, they were told that they cannot exchange because they can’t prove that we didn’t cause the scratch?!!! And that they can repair but screen repairs are currently unavailable? I don’t know if they’re lying or just clueless as far as their company policy as far as return and exchanges. I guess they don’t know about the 14 days return or exchange. Oh and the holiday return policy?!! My daughter came home with the same scratched phone. She said the representatives are so rude to them. So I had to log out of work (lost money) to go to the store myself. I called apple support and told them about this issue as I was very upset. They advised me that they are not sure why they would decline the exchange since I bought the phone 4 days ago. They told me to speak to the manager. So I did. I was hot coming in and the manager was like “this is the first time I’ve ever heard of this issue.” No apologies NOTHING! We told him that my daughter spoke to several representatives and one was a guy wearing a rainbow glasses (I saw him there when I bought the phone and when I came to exchange). They didn’t do anything about their rude employee. The girl that helped me switch everything from the scratch phone to the new one was the ONLY person that apologized. The other employees and the managers should learn from her! This store will treat you like you didn’t just spend a ton of money in there. Dollar tree employees will treat you better than these people. They sure give Apple a bad reputation. I would have given 0 star if I can. The reviews are legit. This store is full of rude and clueless (or even lying) employees. I do not recommend this store...